The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Completed Journals 1956 Chevrolet 6400 “Father & Son project”.

I am fairly new to Stovebolt, so it took me a little while to figure out where was the best place to record our project.

To start, my son Kevin and I have been looking on and off for a project to do for some time. I don't think he will ever quite get over my 1956 Country Squire peoject I sold after my father passed and I lost the storage. In truth, he was right. It was a rare car that had tremendous potential. Alas, you do things when you are grieving that you often look back on with pangs of regret or nostalgia.

In the mean time, we busied ourselves collecting and restoring old outboard motors. Like anything, you can only have so many, but the thrill of taking parts from a scrap pile and collecting them into a fully restored motor that takes you to a fishing hole is quite appealing. Not unlike any restoration I would say.

Fast forward to this last fall. Kevin had been looking at a International K-5. It was a project, but the price was a bit high, but more importantly, parts are harder to find. Then on Thanksgiving Day, he spotted an add on Marketplace for a 1956 Chevrolet 2 ton. The photos looked promising, and even his mom said he should call. Well we set up a meeting for the next day and went to look at it. There had been a lot of activity in the add, but the seller honored Kevin's place as the first one to call about it. There were actually two other groups of folks looking at it when we got there, a distance of about 60 miles from home.

We looked it over. It was a pretty solid truck. Obvious issues, but the engine fired right up, and sounded good. The truck was full of mice and smelled terrible. My wife insisted we first go to a store for disinfectant. It had been a former grain truck in Minnesota. Also available was a 8 x 12 foot flat bed that would fit nicely on the truck. Within the hour, an offer was made and the deal was done.

Now the first order of business was to figure out how to get it home.

Perhaps this should be the end of part 1

Steven A Carlson

Looks like a great Father and Son project!! Please keep us posted on the progress with a lot of pictures.

Don

Nice find. Welcome

John

Well on to part 2.

I was really surprised that my bride was on board with this, but I was not going to challenge our good fortune too vigorously. The next step was to get it home. Fortunately I have a good friend that has a large goose neck beaver tail trailer. I texted him and asked if he would be willing to help, and if he thought that his rig could carry it. He sent me a photo, "This is what I had on it last week", an International 1600 Loadstar. I laughed, as I knew them well from my days as a school bus mechanic. Arrangements were made, and the seller agreed to have a fork truck available to set the bed on so we could haul as a unit. So, three days later we were there. We connected the battery cable, I pulled the choke, stepped in the starter button, and it started up almost instantly.

The engine sounded great. It was missing the fan belt, so I didn't run it long, just enough to align it up to the gooseneck. The seller used his fork truck and set the flat bed in place and I drove it up on the trailer, strapped it down and headed for home. I don't know how many mice we left in Oconomowoc, or on the 60 miles home, but one was seen making an exit from the truck when we were unloading it at home.

Not much work was done that night, Kevin drove it for the first time as he backed it in the driveway. (It was his first time in anything that big, no power steering and floor shift.) I on the other hand, it felt like home. From 1980-84, I was a mechanic for a school bus fleet. Our first wrecker was a 1964 Chevrolet C-60. I was his age and towing busses on the interstate with that truck. (Honestly it was too small for such heavy service, but I put a fair number of towing miles in that in southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

On to part 3

Steve

1956 6400 part 3

Well the next day was one of assessment of what we had, as well as decontaminating it. It still smelled awful, and we were sure that there were still several mice still residing in there. Kevin had already snagged two of them in the traps he set the night before. (We would eventually catch 4 more.) So cleaning started in earnest. I sprayed some strong detergent throughout the cab and hosed it out with hot water. With things slowly getting better on this front, it was also cleaning the engine compartment.

As we surmised, this was a pretty solid truck. It had a Minnesota collector plate on it, and the flat bed was from Texas. It has a 261 engine, and a 4 speed transmission and two speed rear axle. There was a painted over dealer decal on the back of the cab. (Waren Motors, Northwest) I did some digging, and there is a Waren Minnesota in the Northwest portion of the state. There no longer seems to be a dealership there anymore. I have not been able to find any more info on the dealership. The truck was built in Janesville Wiscinsin, just 50 miles west of us in Kenosha. Almost a homecoming. The truck had several minor dings and dents, but rust was not too bad for a midwest truck. Both cab corners had rust as well as the lower door hinge area. Mice had built nests in the lower cowl and rusted out the hinge area. The dump frame and rams were still in place, and look to be in good shape. There were no broken springs, no frame rust, and some play in the king pins. It had 5 tires, and they were shot.

As for the interior, someone had hacked up a huge hole in the dash where the oe radio should mount. They had also replaced the bench seat with a pair of bucket seats from a 2001 Silverado. I was in the fence on them. They were in fairly good condition and being grey they didn't look too bad with the OE interior light grey/dark grey or colors. The big problem was they had been welded to the floor! The guy knew how to weld, but I can't imagine why they thought welding them in was a good idea. That would have to change.

As it was still obvious that we still had a mouse issue, we started to dig into the dash. The glove box was of course involved as was the heater. This truck has the deluxe heater and the complete assembly was removed. It was stuffed full! The heater was one of the first assemblies to be restored. The assembly was glass beaded and any rust repaired. The blower motor was seized and we rebuilt it. I also discovered just how many wheat husks could be jammed into a heater core! I spent hours cleaning and picking them out. Also mouse droppings...1" deep. ..yuck! The heater w
Assembly was all repainted with a hammer tone grey that seemed to be a perfect match. It is complete and waiting to be reinstalled when we get to that stage.

Now it was time to deal with the seats. It was also time for Kevin to decide just what he wanted to do as far as restoration. Keep a patina, do a modest repaint, full resto, etc. As it is his truck, I really wanted this to be his decision.

On to part 4

Steve

1956 6400 part 4

In our decision as to what to do with the seats, we had to make a few decisions. One option was to go back to an original bench seat. The advantage of that was of course it is more original, and also it can accommodate seating for three. Of course,big you have ever driven one of these with a floor shift, you can get rather familiar with the center seat occupant in the process. You decide if that is good or bad, I guess it depends upon who that occupant is. The other issue was that we didn't have a bench.

This led us to do some exploring. Several years ago, Kevin and I were roaming through a salvage yard in town and came across an old tree trimming truck, a 6400 that I actually remember being in service when I was a kid. (I am a bit eccentric in that regard, I still remember many individual busses I worked on 40 years ago) in any event, I suggested we go look at it. Knowing this yard, I was almost positive it would still be there.

Sure enough, it was. It has suffered heavy rust damage, and the seat was still there. We also assessed what parts it may yield us in our project. As crazy as I an, wI have to admit how cool it would be to have two....We took some photos and made plans to come back. It was also on this visit that we found another Chevrolet Isuzu truck with a nice set of 9R-22.5 tires on it. A price for them was set, and another decision to make. They will at least be a significant improvement, and will get us through the restoration period.

Back to the seats. The cost of restoring the bench from the yard truck, plus the benefits to the modern seats made our decision. I liked the new seats having three point seat belts as well as head restraints. I don't mind swapping safety for originality at some point. I did however decide that I would fashion seat brackets that could be unbolted and allow an oe bench seat to bolt in the OE locations. I carefully cut the welds holding them in and repair any scars from them. I went to a local sheet metal shop to collect a stock of metal to work with. I also removed various remnants from the 2001 Silverado electrical system that were still attached to them. I also thought that adding a console would make it feel more complete and comfortable. The added convenience of cup holders and storage didn't hurt either. A trip back to the salvage yard resulted in a console from a Dodge Durrango that fit nicely between the seats. I fashioned a plate that I welded to the floor to be able to bolt the console to. After everything was installed, it felt quite good. I added 4 plates to the underside of the floor with nuts welded to to attach the new seat brackets to and welded them to the seat frames.

I will include some photos of the salvage yard truck, and of the seat install.

On to part 5

Steve

1956 6400 part 5

Well, with the seats installed, we took an opportunity to drive the truck around the block a few times. I actually grabbed a fan belt off of the salvage yard truck for one to match up. We threw it on for the time being. It still worked, I can't imagine how long it had been since it was actually in service. I found that the truck drove very nicely. The transmission and two speed both worked well. I had the chance to give Kevin some tips on how to drive this rig. I was thrilled, it seemed like old shoes. Now was the time to start tearing into some of the more in depth issues.

The right lower door hinge area had some significant rust from mouse urine. In all honesty, it is hard to know if the rust holes allowed the mice access, or did they get in somewhere else. Bottom line it needed to be repaired. The entire cowl vent was packed with nest. After we were able to clean most of it out, I sand blasted the interior of the cowl vent and pillar area. I ended up ordering all three pieces of replacement panels and we figured to do cab corners also. The floor area under the foot area had water that sat under the rubber floor mat. The floors under the truck looked great, but there was some moderate putting on the surface under the mat. Sand blasting and a Milwaukee grinder with a knot brush revealed a half a dozen or so pin holes. These were minor enough to weld the thin spots and grind smooth. As far as I was concerned, it was still up to Kevin if we proceed with a repaint or not. The holes that let mice in had to be corrected, so I just worked along on things that had to be done.

My daughter ordered a dash repair panel for Kevin for Christmas, so I proceeded to install it. Also at this time, Kevin removed the gas tank and found that it had a hole in it from previous damage. The floor under the left rear cab mount was badly cracked. The cracks extended into the left inner cab corner. While looking it over, it seemed that there was only one spot weld that attached the floor brace to the rear wall of the cab. This weld had broken decades before and forced the floor to carry all of the load. Being a grain truck, I surmise that it spent some time in farm fields and that heavy work was more than the floor could handle. Ad the floor gave way, the cab mounting bolt started to protrude higher into the floor as the cab sank. This bolt eventually wore a hole in the tank. A previous owner brazed up the hole, but it must have still had a slow leak as the entire area was covered with some type of epoxy. It was not enough, so we either were going to need a new tank or repair this one.

Somewhere about this stage, it was kind of assumed that we were going to have do at least some repaint. The OE color was Crystal Blue. Sometime it had been repainted a cedar green color. So at this point, I no longer worried about the old paint and went ahead with repairs as needed. The right fender came off to access the pillar, and we took the opportunity to straighten some dents and address rust near the pinch weld by the bottom bolt location. Again the mice had caused issues. Did I happen to mention that I HATE MICE!

In to part 6

Steve

More photos.

Your progressing nicely! It’s great to have a father/son project. Your making memories that you and your son will value a lifetime!

1956 6400 part 6

Thanks for the nice comments. I know these posts are coming quickly as I get caught up, but also it has been at or below zero since the weekend so my time out in the garage has been limited a bit. It does give me a chance to post the progress so far.

As I had mentioned in part 4, we found a pretty decent set of used tires on a truck at a salvage yard. We figured that these could work for a while, at least through the restoration process, so Kevin made a deal with the yard owner. These were on 8 lug rims and the truck had been in the yard for almost a year. The yard is kind of a mess with several huge fallen trees blocking a normal path. Of course, both the 6400 parts truck and the donor Isyzu were near the back if the yard. We made a cursory attempt to get the lugs off with very little success. We were only able to loosten two of the 48 lugs before we snapped off the 3/4" to 1" drive adapter......Clearly this was not going to be a cake walk.

I ordered a new adapter, and had Kevin recruit the aid of one of his strong pals. This time, armed with two floor jacks, my acetylene torch, a 5 foot T-bar, a 5 foot breaker bar and two 5 foot cheater bars, we took another stab at it. Even heating the lug nuts red hot, they still fought every turn. It took us almost 4 hours and I ran out of oxygen on the very last lug nut! We were all leaking blood to some extent and a few bruises, but the 6 tires and all the tools were in the back of the pick-up. The next day while Kevin was at work, I went to the tire store and started the process of getting these tires mounted on the 6400 rims. I took the 450lbs of Isuzu rims to the scrap yard. At least now we didn't have to worry about not having 6 tires that hold air and are at least in town serviceable for a while.

The next major step in the body work was going to be addressing the rust in the cab corners. The problem was that the flat bed was still on the truck. It was still just sitting on the frame from when we picked it up with the fork lift when we brought it home. The tool boxes on the bed were blocking my access to the back of the cab. We would have to remove it somehow. That will be part 7

Steve

1956 6400 part 7

The flat bed that my son Kevin purchased for his 6490 is a really nice unit. The bed is a full 8 feet x 12 feet with a solid headache bar and came with a class IV hitch as well as a gooseneck pocket. It has a Texas license plate on it, and the tool boxes were filled with 10 gallons of nuts and bolts. There was also a highway sign in one of the boxes, so the natural assumption was that it was part of a municipal department or a highway building contractor fleet. As it came from an auction, one can figure that the base truck had been wrecked in some fashion.

The 6400 by contrast was still equipped with the dump frame. The forward portion was bolted down to prevent bouncing I would guess, but in any event it does not look like the dump had been raised for some time. We are still trying to decide if he wants to keep the dump option or just use the flat bed. Keeping the dump frame would add about 7 inches to the height of the bed. I am neutral on that, it is really up to Kevin. It would mean that we would have to notch out a portion of the gooseneck pocket to get the flat bed to clear the dump ram assembly. That is all in the future, for now I needed it gone.

Our family suffered a terrible loss on January 16th with the death of our nephew in a snowmobile accident. He was married to my niece and was a Kenosha police sergeant. He was a twice Bronze Star recipient from Iraq and just a mountain if a man. I guess I kept working on the truck with earnest to keep my mind on something. Well on Friday the 22nd, was the wake, and I decided that this was going to be the day that we removed the bed.

I had planned the idea of removing the outer rear tires, Jack up the bed from three points, the two tool boxes and the rear, and roll the truck out from under it. Simple.... As you can imagine, emotions were on edge, but everything was going to plan. In a fashion like the game "Jenga", we had our plan in action. Then my brother came by and suggested Kevin reposition sis Jack. That was a mistake as it allowed the jack to roll. I ended up having Kevin pull his pick-up with snowmobile trailer along side so I could attach a come-a-libg to the bed to keep it from moving. The whole thing worked, but it was a bit iffy, and in hindsight may not have been one of my better decisions. In any event, the bed was off, lowered to a safe height and out of the way. It was time to put the 6400 back in the garage, get cleaned up and go through a very difficult next few days.

On to part 8

1956 6400 part 8

Well, with the bed now removed, and the truck turned around in the garage, it was time to address the left rear cab mount. The area was badly cracked, and the cracks extended well into the inner cab corner. I ended up placing an order for a left step well, inner and outer cab corners and the three parts that make up the left front lower door pillar and hinge. We also ordered a replacement gas tank and the related seals, gaskets hoses etc. I also added a left inner door bottom


While waiting for these to arrive. I ended up making a new patch for the floor over the cab mount area. I used 16 guage as I figured that I wouldn't mind having more strength. I will add a photo of the patch. It was welded in. And also the rear cab brace was properly attached to to the new patch and rear of the cab.

Also at this time, I rebuilt the right door. The door bottom had several areas of pin holes, and there were also pin holes in the outer skin. I had earlier placed orders for the smaller style inner door bottom, and an outer skin panel. I have found that the smaller door bottom repair panel is much closer to OE than the more complete panel. (More on that later.) The repairs to the right door went very well, and it is ready for primer. During this time, we also spent some time working on the right fender. All old paint was removed as well as hammer and dolly work. There was one fairly sharp dent that I used pull hooks on and welded the pull holes up. A skim coat of filler, and the fender is also ready for primer.

On to part 9

Steve

1956 6400 project. Part 9

With a light skin coat of filler on and sanded out on the right door complete, it was time to start the needed work on the left side. The fender was removed. The left door had some minor corrosion damage, but more importantly, the door had been bent. I think that the door had been open while someone backed into some solid object. The door had a kink in the skin near the back of the door. While it was still mounted, I took the opportunity to use pull hooks th pull out the dent. I was able to get it out fairly well, but there are other issues. Once I had it removed, I could see the damage to the lower hinge bracket and to the front inside of the door. There is also damage to the area around the upper hinge. Are this time I think I am going to remove a large portion of the outer skin, make the repairs and make a new skin. I am not sure yet. I also celebrated the arrival of my parts order. I could now leave the door for later and concentrate on the cab corners and hinge pillar. I could also replace the step well. If you are familiar with these steps, there is a brace welded to the underside that leaves a void between the brace and the step treads. This void fills with dirt and causes the step to rust. I made a patch for the right step well, but that was a major repair. A ton of welding, and the results are not as good as a new step. Kevin also took some time to polish up the instrument cluster, fender emblems and the two speed speedometer adapter. I will need to come up with a vacuum diaphragm to actuate the adapter.

On to part 10

Steve

1956 6400 part 10

Well with the door off, and now we removed the left fender so to proceed. This side, while still fairly solid, still had some rust issues. As I had stated, both the cab corner and the lower hinge area had some issues. The parts order with the three parts making up the lower hinge door pillar assembly. I started on the cab corner. The door pillar also had rust, so I made a new panel to replace it. This part has some numerous curves and bends that make up the section inside the cab corner. The two parts that make up the cab corner did not fit very well. The outer part was pretty good, but where the inner panel meets the outer it was a long way from fitting. I was able to get it all together. As it turned out I should not have attached the door pillar to the cab corner. I later had to cut this attachment to get my line down the door opening to where I wanted it. Once this was off, I took the opportunity to clean and paint the floor brace. .

Now I went to work on the front door pillar by the lower hinge. These parts fit much better than the three parts on the right side. They were all welded in place. The step and rocker panel assembly was also removed. I made a new panel for the filler between the right lower door pillar and the step assembly. I made this out of 16 guage as again, this part carries a load of the floor and cab area. This brace was also cleaned and painted prior to boxing it in again.

Next was to install the step, and swap a stiffener brace to the outside edge of the running board. Once all that was OK, I dollied the floor area to mate properly with the flange on the step. Once it was all welded in, I was very happy with the end results. As I said earlier. I did rework the cab corner to get the door opening line to my satisfaction. I then put the final weld of the seam between the rocker panel portion of the step assembly and the cab corner.

Many of you know. The polar vortex decided to show up. It is making it difficult to work in the garage, so progress has slowed a bit. We are cleaning and painting door hinges, new pins and bushings, and other misc. Parts. Wr also went to work on the inner fenders sanding them and removing any surface rust. They are very close to being ready, but painting in this weather is not really in the cards. I also made a decision to return the inside door bottom in exchange for the smaller part and am going to replace the outer 3/4ts of the door skin instead. I had one bent with a 1/2" bend on 2 sides and will but weld it near the peak bend on doir..

Thanks for reading!

On to part 11

Steve

More photos..

Again, more photos.

1956 6400 project part 11

As I mentioned in.my last update, it has been crazy cold. I have found that as I have gotten older, I have difficulty keeping my hands warm. It is crazy how much heat a cold dolly sucks out of your hands when it is 0 out. So while the rest of me is fine, my hands are my work limit.

With all that, we have been working on the inner fenders. They were pretty straight, but the right side below the battery area had a fair amount of surface rust. We are lucky that even though it was rusted, there is almost no pitting. The inner fender seals where they meet the firewall were a melted mass of goo. Kevin removed the staples that held the remnants of the old seals, and I dollied the area straight. The right front fender had a pretty sharp dent just above the headlight. This must have been a hard impact, but there was no damage to the inner fender. They have both been sanded, wire wheeled and gone over so they are ready for primer. It has just been too cold to apply the primer.

While doing some further engine inspection Kevin noticed that the exhaust manifold is cracked directly under the area if the carburetor. We have been soaking the bolts, and so far I have all but 1 broken loose. I gave it another shot of Kroil last night. I am confident I will get it loose. We then need to make a decision on whether to weld it up or replace it. That begs additional questions. How to weld, braze, stick... TBD. If we replace, I have found a possible donor, but I have not confirmed the condition, or whether a 235 manifold will fit a 261. If anyone reading this knows, please post a comment.

Right now we have up to 3 feet of snow that is going to keep me out of the salvage yard for a few weeks at least. I will post a photo of the possible donor. In part 12, I will cover the right cab corner.

Thanks for reading!

Steve

As I recall the 261 and 235 are in the same family, therefor the exhaust manifolds might be interchangeable. The 235 PG engines, '54 and later might be the manifold to look for.

Thanks for the reply! The parts truck is a 56 also so that is probably the year of the motor. I did take photos of the block and head casting numbers of the salvage yard truck.

Steve

Edit: The cylinder casting number on the head shows that the parts truck is a 1955.

1956 6400 part 12.

Well I had a full post that went "poof" in the cloud last night, I will try again.

As I have been posting, and if anyone has been paying attention, I am far from the only area that has been pretty cold. I have to limit my time out as as I have gotten older, I can't keep my fingers warm. The rest of me is fine, too much insulation...

With the left side metal work complete, I turned my attention to the right cab corner. I had not been able to access the area with the bed on, and it was still on when I was repairing the right front door pillar. Thankfully when we turned the truck around. We left enough room on the right side to work, albeit a bit cramped. This cab corner was actually a bit more rust than the left, but was still not awful. In this case I only replaced the inside portion of inner cab corner. I removed the floor and step section from the patch panel. This made fitting the inner to outer panel much easier. As for the outer cab corners, I have to say that these were very well made and they work wonderfully. The biggest issue is where the inner and outer meet are the bottom. With a bit of work I had them where I wanted them and it was all welded up. I did make a small patch to the door pillar but the rest of it was solid. I ground the welds on the inside and I am very happy with the repair.

I also have to replace two cage nuts for the door hinge bolt. I don't like the replacements as much as they limit the adjustment movement of the hinge to about 1/8" vs 1/4" on the original. I installed the one on the left and will fit up the door after I rebuild it prior to putting the right one in. Curiously both top cage nuts each side were broken. (Am I missing something???) In any event. With the left door I made the decision to return the large inner door bottom and order the smaller one instead. I like the fact the smaller panel has the correct stamping for the bottom area where the weather strip retainer attaches. The larger panel was not OE, and while I am sure it would work, I would never be happy knowing it was different than the right side... I went to a local sheet metal shop and had a sheet of 20 guage cut and a couple of lips bent to make a new outer door skin. This way I will have full access to the inside of the door to correct it's ills. I did reweld the nuts to the lower hinge bracket replacement I ordered. The two very small tacks on the nuts were just begging to fail. I would not have been happy to have them come off after I had the door all buttoned up. I will start to tear into the door in a week or so.

In the mean time, we have been doing some mechanical work. I was able to free up all of the exhaust/intake bolts, and will be pulling it in preparation to either replacing it or welding it. I have not made up my mind yet on this yet. We did remove and ordered new rubber brake lines for both front wheels and the rear hose. They actually all looked pretty good, but with the age, and a single reservoir, it just makes me feel better with new hoses on it. I was able to go to a NAPA in a rural community that still had all of the old catalogs. My local store was not very helpful. With the brake hoses off, We took the opportunity to remove the kingpins. I have a replacement 1/2 ste, and a full set on order. At least I can get the bushings in and get them reamed to size this week. The new pins are nice and snug in the axle, so I was pleased. I used to change king pins all the time when I was working on school buses, but I have not done any in 40 years! #@$#. When the axle is back together we will probably continue on detailing the engine and accessories.

That is enough for now, on to part 13

Steve

20 Mercman Great family project,very lucky its already running more pictures please as you progress !

1956 6400 part 13

Thanks everyone for following and for the nice comments.

Well thankfully the weather has broken and I have had a chance to be outside more. It has been a busy week with a lot of family stuff getting my attention. I also was lucky enough to get my first covid shot! I had taken my mother and father in-laws to get their shots. I half joking asked the nurse if they didn't thaw out a few extra doses. Eventually she asked for some info and if I had any conditions. I have asthma. She said she would put me on the cancellation list. They call folks on the list if someone cancels so to not waste any doses. This was Thursday. On Friday, my wife and I were driving by and I was wondering how long it might take for a chance. Just then, my phone rang. "Can you get here in 15 minutes? " I can be there in 5! Yea!!!

On to the truck. I took the spindles in to the machine shop on Monday. Well, yesterday I still had not heard back, so I called. After a few moments,bhe said that he didn't have a good reason for them to not have been done, but they were not. They will be ready Monday. It was so nice to not have some lame excuse, just the truth. I wish more places were like that. I also was able to get the new brake hoses at NAPA. I had to go to a store about 25 miles away ad my local store said it was too old for them to look up. It ended up taking 4 trips to get the right ones, but again, I was very glad they were willing to help. It still added up to 200 miles, but that's how it goes.

Kevin and I pulled the rest of the front radiator, grille and radiator support off and began cleaning everything. I removed the manifolds and assessed the crack in the exhaust. I have a friend that I plan to weld it as he has a good amount of experience welding cast iron.

We also started to clean the engine, bell housing, and transmission, and get it ready for paint. We pulled the accessories off, gen, starter, distributor, oil filter etc. I have been working on getting the block and head clean. I plan to paint the engine, then remove the valve cover, tapper cover and oil pan and paint them on the bench. I want to inspect the oil pump screen anyway. I also showed Kevin how to install a distributor with a "disturbed" engine. He wants to learn these things.

When I get the king pins back together, and the new grease seals arrive, we plan to roll the chassis outside and pressure wash the residue on the frame and transmission. I think we have scraped 5 gallons of gunk off these areas. It is pretty clean, and I am going through brakleen like crazy. I now have almost all of the nook and crannies of the engine/transmission pretty well free of 65 years of residue. I scrubbed the engine down with lacquer thinner 3 times and have it very close to clean. There will be lots to keep busy with cleaning up the accessories and detailing them. We can also get the radiator support ready to paint.

So, all in all, progress. I have been working outside with just a short sleeve shirt. 45 degrees feels GREAT!

That's it for now, on to part 14

Steve

I recently picked up three 6400's (1955 2nd Series, 1957 and a 1959). The 55 has a 235 and the 57 & 59 both have 261's. The later also have dump beds with 2 spd rear axles. I intend to do some of the same things as your father and son project (of course this will be a grandfather, son and grandson project). Each of them need extensive work on the cab, so we will be choosing which two will serve a foundations and which one will serve as parts. At least one of the two will retain the 235/261 , but one of them will end up getting a complete remake with a more modern engine, drivetrain and suspension. I have bought a collection of stovebolt engine parts over the past few weeks and one of the 261's will end up in a special project that will be hauled around by one of the trucks (most likely the one running the 261). Our project will start as soon as my new shop is up (and the wife's new bedroom bathroom project is complete...). Can't wait to get started on my own, so I will have to keep an eye on yours until then.

Regards,
Rodney in NC

Welcome to the Stovebolt Rodney! It sounds like you guys will have some fun projects to work on. Be sure to start your own thread in the Project Journals once you get things moving forward. Let me know if you have any questions.

Good luck,

1956 6400 part 14

Well I can say that this is probably the first time that I have welcomed the warm up and melting of our snow pack. I have always loved snow and winter in general, but I really want to make progress on Kevin's truck so go ahead and melt away!

We have made some good progress in the last few days. Again, more cleaning and scraping crud from the frame and transmission. Two other things, the post office found my lost set of king pins, and the machine shop finished reamung the king pin bushings I put in the spindles. ($103.00 for sizing the two spindels.) They did a nice job, and the pins fit really nice. I do wish I had access to the reamers I used when I was a bus mechanic. It turned out that I actually purchased 1 1/2 sets of NOS repair kits. That was a good thing, as each kit was missing parts or had rustred items. I was able to get a nice set and fit with the combined sets. Kevin then had his first chance to fit then up and shim as needed. The backing plates, all cleaned up were reinstalled and now we just need the new felt grease seals to arrive to get the front wheels back on. There is a stiff spot in the steering gear. The unit had some old fairly heavy grease in it. It is pretty well thickened up over the years, so we added some 90-140 gear lubes to it. We ran it lock to lock several dozen times. There seems to be a wide range of opinions as to what "Steering gear lube" really is. In any case, the gear lube should help soften up the old grease so it can actually be changed a bit later. There is still a moderate stiff spot, but it is significantly less. BTW, it is definitely in the gear, not the new king pins.

So with that part waiting for the seals, yesterday I started to work on the left door. I used Classic Truck Parts smaller of the two inner door bottom patch panels and am very pleased with how it turned out. I removed the lower hinge bracket at the same time and straightened the area on the inside that was damaged. This morning I removed the glass and stripped all of the weather strip, and assorted window related items. I will start to fit up the new outer skin, and make the final repairs to the collision damage once I have the skin off and I have better access.

Enough typing for now, I have to get back to work.

Thanks for reading and for the comments!

Steve

On to part 15

1956 6400 part 15

It has been a very busy last two days. I have been working in rebuilding the left door. In my last update I posted the repairs to the inside door bottom. Yesterday afternoon I went ahead and cut off the outer skin. This door had a lot of hidden damage. The inner front hinge side was pretty well bent up. I was able to get everything back to where I believe they should be.

With that repaired, I moved on to the lower hinge bracket. This part is not that accurate. The two small tack welds holding nuts for the hinge on were way too little. I am sure that they would have broken off very easily. Ti was also not bent or assembled correctly. I ended up cutting the 5 spot welds that held the two parts together and moved it to where it should be. I tacked the bracket in place and then mounted the door on the truck. Once I was sure that the bracket was OK, I welded it up fully. I then mounted it again. It turned out that the replacement cage nut that I installed for the upper left top hinge bolt was not going to work. In a previous post, I mentioned that this cage nut only allows 1/8" vs 1/4" adjustments. Kevin drilled out the welds and cleaned it up and moved it further out. We reinstalled the door and checked the fit. The fit is much better. Kevin then painted the inside of the door as well as the inside of the new outer skin.

I then started fitting up the new skin. I have it measured up, and it is the correct measurements. I then fit up the drain holes and welded the new skin on. I called it a day. 9 hours is enough! I only have a few photos to post today.

Tomorrow I will post some photos of the outer repair.

Steve

In to part 16

Hey Steve;

Great work, that turned out awesome!

The bottom of the door that you replaced went well, I had a hard time seeing where you spliced it together.

Nice work, and keep posting.
Steve

Thanks Steve!

Here are a few more photos of the door. I am still not done with the welding, but the first pass has been ground off. A few more pin hole gaps to fill and add the spot welds to the pinch seams. I kept the butt weld fairly close to the body line to help avoid warping. I added some shots of the inside showing the drains and how the outer skin fits. All in all I can live with it.

Steve

Continued:

Two shots of the outside.

Steve

Coming from a guy with your kind of talent, that makes me feel pretty good.

1956 6400 part 16.

I don't have many photos for this update, but I have been working on the truck pretty much non-stop lately. We have been mostly doing body work. I have applied body filler to the areas where I have welded in new panels. This is both cab corners, doors, door hinge pockets, and the back of the cab. Being that this truck has a dump system, it seemed like anything that didn't fit in the back was loaded on the roof. I used pull hooks and hammer to pull the numerous dents from the roof panel. The roof had a lot more damage then I had expected. I am probably old school, but I like using pull hooks. You can get things really straight with them. I welded up the many pull hook holes and with the surface prepped for a skim coat of filler, I applied a nice medium thin coat over the back and sides of the roof. After blocking the roof out, I proceeded to fall off the truck breaking my fall on angel iron brackets welded on the frame..... That was Sunday and I am still significantly slower and hurting than normal.

I now have almost all of the cab ready for primer. I did remove the rear window and found some rust inside the cab by the dome light. I will have to get to that soon.

We ran into a snag on the steering. After replacing the king pins, we discovered that the steering gear has a stiff spot. The more I read about these gears, I can't imagine that is not something on the worm or sector shaft. Today we made a trip back to the salvage yard to oil up the exhaust manifold bolts, and if possible, check the steering gear. We were able to listen all but one of the manifold bolts, and gave it a soaking of Kroil. We will be back on Saturday to pull that. We also scrounged several Jack's and managed to be able to lift the front end off the ground. Thankfully, this gear is glass smooth lock to lock. I plan to remove this in Satyrday as well. All in all, it was fun. I love walking through salvage yards. We also did get a good look at a 1920's FWD plow truck. Very cool!

I am anxious to get in to primer and blocking. I am also trying to olan how I want to paint it and in what order. Kevin has decided on Empire blue, (a dark, almost Navy blue), an available color for 1956, with a white rod. Still are seriously considering purchasing a visor.also.

Thanks for reading!

Steve

On to part 17

1956 6409 part 17

This will be a short update. We did get back to the salvage yard on Saturday. It was with mixed results. We did get the manifold off as a unit. Carburetor and all. We were not as successful with the steering gear. We just could not get the pitman arm to break free of the splines. I had a brand new pitman arm puller, but it was starting to fail. I put a large C clamp on it to keep it from spreading, but the threads were starting to gall. Everything else is loose including removing the fender. So that was mixed results. Upon returning home, and cleaning the exhaust manifold up, it appears that it is cracked also. The cracks are not as large as the original, but this one has two of them. It does have the heat riser spring though. Also upon further inspection, the original intake manifold is cracked too. The salvage yard one is OK. I ended up bringing both exhaust manifold to a welder and he is going to try to weld them. We will see what happens.

As for the steering gear, I figured I would pull it apart and see what was up. The packing retainer on the sector shaft was not seated. This kept the packing to not seal against the face of the housing. It also would not stay in place. The rest of the gear was in very good condition. I think that the issue was the lash was too tight. It also had only wheel bearing grease, and old stuff at that in it. I reassembled it and set the lash and bearing load and she moves freely lock to lock. I inspected the packing, it was in good condition. New ones are not available, are least I couldn't find any. I used my body hammer to expand the retainer and reinstalled it. This time it went in with appropriate resistance. I put a small bead of JB Weld around the recess where the retainer seats to help keep it there and seal any chance of it seeping past the outside. I am going to fill the unit with gear oil and keep an eye on it for a week or so before I reinstall it.

Steve

1956 6400 part 18

We have had a fairly productive week working on the truck. We are still moving along with the body work. I also was having issues with my air compressor. The unit was spitting oil. We had changed the oil back in January, I don't know why it became an issue now, but it seems that there was about 2 oz.too much in it. I drained it to the proper level, but still had oil residue in my air hoses. Kevin replaced the filter/regulator also. That is the last thing I need on my body work. Thankfully I ran air tools for hours today and everything seems normal.

In a bit of good news the mirror brackets I ordered back in early Feburary finally came on Wednesday! In a bit of strangeness, the truck did not have a right side mirror. It not only made the truck look out of balance, it is hard to back up with no mirror on the blind side. I mounted them up last night and hung the doors to check the fit. The doors were really poor fitting when we got it. I don't think it was really much of a priority back then. Now that I have done so much rebuilding on them, I was anxious to see how they fit.

We also spent a lit of time working on the cowl and the cab interior. Except for the ceiling, most of the interior paint has been removed and surface rust addressed. Still cleaning anything and everything and rebuilding components.


I will add a few photos of the door fit up.

Thanks for reading!

Steve

1956 5600 part 19

Well, It's been a while since I posted an update, so I figured I would fill in some of the things we have been working in lately, and clean up some things from previous posts.

As for the salvage yard exhaust manifold, it turned out to be cracked also. I had been thinking about attempting brazing them, when my brother suggested I have a friend of ours weld them. He gave it an honest effort, but they both came back worse than when we started. I am going to again try to braze them. What do I have to loose?

I also determined that our missing brake fluid was indeed going in the hydrovac. I could not find any source for a repair kit, but I eventually found a company in Chivago that rebuilds them. On Saturdat Kevin and I drove down to Chicago and dropped it off. I hope to hear back from this week. Wr also today following Paul1956's advice took the hood, left front fender and grill to a shop in Franklin Wisconsin to have them stripped. I know almost wish I had done that to the right fender, but it is now in pretty good shape. A lot of books and tight spots that hold rust.

With those items out of the way, I have been blocking out some of the repaired areas. I also have been working on the doors more. The rear body line on the left door was not good enough. The back side is supposed to be square. This thing had a bulge to the rear in the area of the outward rounded body line. N
I could get the gaps all good, but there was an area that was too tight about a foot long. This was a section of the door that I did not work on when I replaced the skin . I came to the conclusion that ti was just made wrong. The thing fit like wooden shoes when we got it. It probably never fit all that well when built. I ground the pinch weld back and reeled and ground the round edge. I should have done it days ago.

Kevin has been busy with school, but has been working as much as he can. He has made great progress with the frame and dump bed frame. We are not going to go crazy with it, but there were old brackets left from the original bed as well as some heavy rust scale on the dump frame. He has it about all ground down and ready for some rust reformylator and paint. I want to paint the cowl and windshield opening before we paint the frame. He also painted the engine and lettered the valve cover. I will say finding the correct yellow paint was a chore. I also now understand why people spray them at the store. I picked up 2 cans that were so far away from the cap color that I figured someone made a mistake. I do find that Rust-Oleum has the truest and closest match. I will stick with them.

That should do it for now. I will include a few photos.

On to part 20

Thanks for reading!

Steve

Good job going on there.
Try fixing your exhaust manifolds with this product. Very easy to use and you get outstanding results.
https://www.muggyweld.com/product/77-cast-iron-welding-rod

Thanks sack., I actually looked into those rods, but I gave my arc welder away as I use the MIG almost exclusively. It was a brand new Miller that I never struck an arc with.....crazy. In any event, this morning I brazed the original manifold, and I am pleased with the results. I did have a bit of trouble getting it to flow on the weld residue that was left from the guy that attempted to weld it, but it turned out fine. I knew I should have just tried it first. I have found that many production welders that I know can weld new clean metal all day can make a weld so beautiful that it makes you slink away. Then they get a rusty POS to work on, and they punt. My brother was a sheet metal worker and I know a lot of guys in the trade.

I remember my welding instructor talking about the fact that mechanics have to deal with what they have, so they just do it.

Today was a productive day. I worked on more detail and blocking on both doors. Kevin worked on the frame, and we removed the windshield. Happily the metal around the windshield is solid. YEA!!!

Sreve

1956 6400 part 20

It has been a few weeks, so I thought it was time for an update.

Yesterday we went to Chicago to pick up the rebuilt hydrovac. We took it to a shop called Rebuilders Enterprises. They did a wonderful job, it looks like new. We have not installed it yet, hopefully soon.

In other work, We are doing more detail blocking and priming getting the body ready for paint. We got the interior ready and I put 3 good coats on the interior. The interior is Ford Lught Grey. We are painting the rest of the accents and the floor/step area as close to the OE color I could find. I found Rust-oleum Deep Slate to be very close match.

I have to mount the visor and get the holes in place , and then I will be very close to putting the color on the roof. Once I also get the slate color on the dash we can reinstall the steering column. We can also start to put the interior parts back in. Very fun part of the project is coming up.

Steve

1956 6400 part 21

I was able to complete the painting of the dash, and second coat on the floor. The inside is done. Kevin and I mounted the visor. I probably should have returned it as it was pretty well bent in shipping, but I did straighten it. I think it looks good on a big truck. I then went on to more work on the doors. We had a significant weather change and it has been quite cold. Way too cold for putting on the exterior colors. However, today it warmed up enough in the sun for me to paint the insides of doors.

Next week it is supposed to get into the 60's, so that will be perfect. I still need to get the hood, grill, and left fender from the stripper. Hope that is ready soon. Kevin and I have the underside if the can and almost all of the frame painted. We still have the last 3 feet to go. I also have to get working on the vent windows. They will be the next items that really need attention. I have new weatherstrip, just need to rebuild them. I will add a few photos.

Thanks for reading.

Steve

1956 6400 part 22

It has been a busy stretch working on the truck. I finally was able to shoot some color on the cab. I have not painted with a spray gun in 30 years, I was not very confident in how it would turn out. I ended up using a "touch-up syphon gun. I picked it up years ago thinking I could use it to paint my outboard, but had never used it. It actually sprayed pretty well. I did have one time it started spitting, but not too bad and the drops blended in. I have a couple of spots to sand with 2000 but over all I am satisfied. I have been fighting this recent cold snap as it has been too cold for paint.

We also have started to reassemble things and reattach items on the cowl. I am rebuilding the vent windows, now. I also took a trip to Restoration Spevialists in Franklin Wisconsun to pick up the hood, grille and left front fender. Our plan is to get the truck cab basically complete so I can roll it outside while I paint the exterior of the doors, and work on the front clip. There is just not enough room to work on those items with the truck in the garage also. Hopefully once the exterior of the doors are painted, we can hang them and get them out of the way. That will free up a lot of space. Still a long way to go, but progress is progress.

Steve

That color is great, your light years ahead of my project.